Crazy Happenings

Some of you may have heard about the fires in Oklahoma on Thursday, April 9th. Well, there was a really big one right in our neck of the woods. When we were driving around this morning we saw some of the damage. There were houses that were completely gone. By "completely gone" I mean that they had no furniture, no roof, and no walls. Most of these houses were brick homes and all that's left of them is a pile of ash! We didn't even go to the hardest hit areas. We were just going to the park and home again. There were several close calls. We saw one house that had a completely black yard, front and back, and the house wasn't touched. Then, a few houses down the road was a house without a roof. All the ones in between were fine.

So, this happened in our ward boundaries. There were actually two different wild fires in our ward boundaries. 35-40 houses were destroyed in these fires, and nobody in our ward lost their homes. Even though some of their neighbors did.

I guess our family is getting a lot of experience dealing with natural disasters. We have lived through hurricanes. We've been close to tornadoes. We've been in ice storms. And now, we've dealt with fires. All of this has been in the last 4-5 years too. It is a good feeling to know that I am more prepared than I have ever been before for these sorts of things. There are still a few more things we need to get, but for the most part, I think we are set. Of course, we can always get more and be prepared to help more people as well. So, I don't think that we will ever stop preparing for things like this. I am really glad that we have listened to the Prophet and done the things that we have done to be prepared. It gives us a sense of peace when we follow the Lord, not that I was feeling peaceful while the fires were burning... who could?

I urge any of you who read this to get prepared. Be prepared for anything that could happen. Know what you would do in situations that might happen. Do what you can now to prepare for tomorrow, since we never know what tomorrow will bring.